The Multidimensional Prognostic Index Predicts Falls in Older People: An 8-Year Longitudinal Cohort Study of the Osteoarthritis Initiative.
Nicola Veronese, Giacomo Siri, Alberto Cella and 9 others
PMID 31780413WHAT IT FOUND
In older adults with knee osteoarthritis, higher baseline scores on a modified geriatric risk index were associated with more recurrent falls over 8 years, including within the first year.
Key findings
01A 0.1-point higher modified MPI score was associated with a 34% higher risk of recurrent falls over the 8-year follow-up.
02The reported incidence of recurrent falls was 55.8% in the highest modified MPI risk group and 17.4% in the lowest risk group.
03The modified MPI was also associated with recurrent falls in the first year after baseline, with a 0.1-point higher score associated with a 48% higher risk.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The people studied were older White adults with knee osteoarthritis or high risk for it, so the results may not apply to non-White adults or to older adults without knee osteoarthritis. Falls were self-reported at visits, not recorded in daily diaries, and the paper says recall of falls is often poor and may underestimate falls. The index was modified for this dataset: it used depressive symptoms and knee quality of life instead of cognitive status, so it is not the usual validated MPI. The index's ability to separate recurrent fallers from non-recurrent fallers was modest, with an area under the curve of 62.7% over 8 years and 68.5% in the first year. This was a preliminary analysis, and the study did not test whether using the index changes care or reduces falls.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include an author conflict-of-interest declaration. The publication types indicate NIH extramural research support and non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that using the modified MPI will prevent falls or that a higher score causes falls. This was an observational study of self-reported falls in a selected group of older White adults with knee osteoarthritis or high risk for it, and it did not test any intervention.